Cheng Zhi

Just to help the checklist makers.

The Last Spoiler

Today is release day for 24 TCG First Edition and that makes it is the last spoiler. I would write more about this card but everyone knows how good direct wounding is. Plus Chaz and I have some First Edition packs to open!

Happy Release Day!

A Chase Chase

I'm sending out the spoilers for this week, the last week of spoilers since First Edition releases this week. This week is going to be Chase Week, all the of spoilers will be chase cards. Each booster set will have a sub-set of 24 chase cards. A chase card is an alternate image of a base-set card and it is foiled.

Since Ed is away this week, leaving me almost in-charge (man what a scary thought) I decided I wanted two spoilers this week. I want to kick off Chase Week a day early with a very special card, a chase Chase. How cool is that?

I don't really want to talk much about Chase Edmunds other than to say I'm pretty sure he works well with Going Rogue. Check back tomorrow for the other spoiler this week.

This Spoiler Day is brought to you by the letter R.

In honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day all of the spoilers today start with the letter R. Of course it could easily have been in honor of Sesame Street, today's show is brought to you by the letter W - E - I - R & D (as in Ed's article is weird) and the number 2 (it took me two times to actually read the article to believe he was actually going to post it). Enough with Pirates, Big Bird, and how silly Ed is, onto the spoiler!

Who says only Insurgents get direct wounding. So far really only Terrorists and Infiltrators (with a little Head Shot for everyone) have direct wounding. Not anymore, now Agents have it as well. The difference with Terrorists, Infiltrators and Agent is that the Agents can wound someone at the Briefing Room in addition to the Field. Chloe, Ira, or Alexis are no longer safe just chllin' in the Briefing Room. It is an Agenda so you can see it coming and it does require you to be running mostly Agents but I know I wouldn't want to get Raid'ed

Elite Week!

It is Spoiler Day and Elite Week and that means it is an Elite Spoiler! Okay, I know that was not very exciting but I just got off a plane after a two day trade show. I'm tired but so much stuff to do to get First Edition ready to ship, plus I had to come in and give out the spoilers.

Who doesn't like William Devane, I mean really, he is great as James Heller. I picked on some of the messageboard users a few weeks about the potential of an upcoming James Heller card. Most major characters will be introduced as an Elite first (just ask Tony) and then in a set or two later that character will be given the full range of cards. James Heller is another example.

Heller is the Secretary of Defense which means he usually sends other people to do his dirty work. The Special Forces team that takes out the evil Insurgents is under orders from the SecDef but the SecDef isn't sharing the harm. Send in the 1 Skill Agent and have him go unblocked, bam switch to James Heller and get 4 points instead. Know your opponent has two Head Shots, let them play one and then switch to Secretary Heller and make sure that mission remains opposed. There are a ton of ways to take advantage of Heller's unique ability.

A quiet spoiler

With only a week or two until First Edition releases we don't have enough time to give every card type their own week. This week is everything else week. Last week was character week and next week is Elite week, this week you get a glimpse at all of the other cards in 24 TCG, Agendas, Equipment, and Events.

Quiet Kill is one of my favorite cards in First Edition. Lethal is a very strong Trait, some would say the strongest of the four Traits. I think Focused is really good and the other two are very underrated however you can't deny how strong Lethal is and the shift in board position it can create. This card can give Lethal to anyone. Now you're probably not going to win the mission that you use Quiet Kill but you'll probably kill the opposing character.

Make sure to check the other spoilers and my designer blog on Friday, I'll probably have a few more spoilers then.

Charles Logan, Needs Help

I wanted my first spoiler for 24 TCG First Edition to be unique and a little off the wall. Charles Logan sure is unique and very much off the wall. Logan was introduced in Day Zero as the iconic character in one of the three Insurgent decks. If you watch the incredible season 5 of 24 you know that Logan is not exactly helping the good guys despite being the Chief of State. However in season 4 (and again later on) Charles Loganw while a little incompetent, isn't only in it for personal gain. He is trying to help stop Habib Marwan, he just isn't very good at it.

This version of Logan represents the season 4 persona. Logan is the President but he does need help. You can sacrifice him to search your deck for a President or Vice President. Right now Logan can help you search for David Palmer, Wayne Palmer, or James Prescott. Eventually that list will grow to include the likes of Noah Daniels, Hal Gardner, or even another version of Charles Logan, not to mention some of the foreign Presidents that show up on 24.

I picked Logan to spoil for two reasons. First is the alternate uniform. Season 5 of 24 is the favorite in the office so most versions of Charles Logan will be Insurgents. However we do love the alternate uniform leeway we're allowed with 24 TCG. With so many characters changing allegiances there will be many characters switching back and forth between CTU and Insurgents, not all the time but enough to keep it interesting. We started it with Mike Novick and a few more get different versions in First Edition. In fact one of them was spoiled at Gen Con.

The other reason I wanted to spoil Charles Logan was his keywords. Some of the keywords in 24 TCG are very easy to understand what they mean and represent, others not so much. Some of the more common questions at Wizard World Chicago and Gen Con Indy were "what does Almeida mean" or "Why doesn't Alexis have the Drazen keyword". I will go over all of the more subtle 24 TCG keywords on my first www.24tcg.com Designer Blog on Friday. Until then, feel free to speculate what Gifted means, which is actually pretty easy. The hard part is figuring out where it comes from.

Chad's Storming Terrorists

This is the deck Chad Storm used to win the first 24 TCG Championship. He defeated David 2 games to 1 at about 3:45 in the morning after playing 24 TCG since 11am the day before, what dedication.

Directive
Wave of Terror

Characters
Habib Marwan, Master Terrorist x2
Sherry Palmer, Out for Number One x1
Nasir Trabelsi, Aggressive Terrorist x2
Dmitri Gredenko, Ultranationalist x2
Hasan Numair, Bomb Specialist x1
Victor Drazen, Mad With Vengeance x2
Masher Abu-Marzuq, Handler x2

Events
Head Shot x2
Dedicated to the Cause x2
Fearless x2

Equipment
Ak-47 x2
9mm Parabellum x2
Kevlar Vest x2

David's Infiltrating Terrorist Deck

Or are they terrorizing Infiltrators. This is David Gerspach's Gen Con Championship 24 TCG Runner-Up Deck. David mixed Infiltrators and Terrorists along with some of the pumps and high war number cards available in his deck.

Directive
Wave of Terror

Characters
Habib Marwan, Master Terrorist x1
Nasir Trabelsi, Aggressive Terrorist x1
Mandy, Sexy Assassin x1
Assassin, Shadowy Killer x1
Nina Myers, Professional x1
Kevin Carroll, Alan York x1
Alexis Drazen, Hard to Kill x1
Ahmed Amar, Young and Dedicated x1
Dmitri Gredenko, Ultranationalist x1
Ira Gaines, Mercenary x1
Hasan Numair, Bomb Specialist x1
Victor Drazen, Mad With Vengeance x1

Events
Getting Personal x2
Well Trained x2
Backstabbing x1
Fearless x2

Agendas
Arm The Nuke x2
Infiltrate CTU x2

Equipment
M-4 Carbine x1

Gen Con Preview Championship

In the early hours of Sunday morning we crowned our first champion for 24 TCG, the Gen Con Preview Champion. Since the game isn't completely out yet, it is only the Preview Day Zero Tactical Packs it was only the Preview Championship. We'll crown our first World Champion at Gen Con Indy in 2008.

Since I've had this job I've now crowned three Champions at Gen Con Indy and they've all been the same person, Chad Storm. Chad Storm won the first FMA TCG World Championship in 2006, he successfully defended his title on Friday evening to become the 2007 FMA TCG World Champion, and on Sunday morning he was the first 24 TCG Champion.

Chad was able to outlast over 40 players in the swiss event and make the top 4 at the number four seed. Chad defeated Sean Gaboury and then played David Gerspach who had just played Erik Markanian (I will double check the name spelling when I get to the office on Tuesday so I apologize if they're wrong). Chad and David went the full three games, David taking Game 2, Chad winning Game 1 and the deciding Game 3. Erik was playing a mixed Insurgent deck, not really set up to one specialty. Sean was playing a mixed Analyst/Agent deck, Analysts for support and Agents to score points. David was playing a mostly Infiltrator deck with a few strong Insurgents splashed in like Victor Drazen and Habib Marwan.

Chad was playing a straight Terrorist deck with only Sherry Palmer splashed in. I will update both David's and Chad's deck when I get a chance.

Gen Con was great, hope to see you next year.

Gen Con Championship

Over 30 players signed up for the 24 TCG Gen Con Championship constructed event. It started at 8:00pm and is now set up with the Final Four. There are three Insurgent decks and one CTU deck in the Final Four. I will try and keep you updated but this is my third 16 hour day in a row, I'm a little out of it :)

Gen Con Update

Or lack of updates. The wireless network in the Budweiser Lounge this year aren't very good, I can't update as much as I would like to.

I will update as much as I can over the next few days but I am spending 16 hours a day between the tournament hall and the exhibit hall.

Keep checking, pictures and stuff are going to come, I promise.

Wizard World Chicago, Day Three

We finished up our first show for 24 TCG with a bang today. I don't have a full update because frankly breakdown tore me up. I will update tomorrow after the long drive from Chicago to Indianapolis and when we get settled. I have some more pictures and of course funny stories to tell. Of course my stories aren't actually that funny but I'll keep writing them anyway.

We had two sealed tournaments today, one with 6 players and another with 12 players. One was won by a Jack Bauer Agent deck and another by the David Palmer Statesman deck.

On the deck design forums I put up my Gunslinging decks which finished Wizard World Chicago a nice 8-0.

Hope to see everyone at Gen Con Indy.

Wizard World Chicago, Day Two

I do apologize for the lack of an update. I left my camera at the booth because I had to run to dinner with the InQuest and Wizard people and we literally just got back. It was a great crab place somewhere in Chicago but talking shop for 4 hours after the show can be a little tiring. I will give what rundowns I can remember from the 55,000 person Saturday that is Wizard World Chicago.

We had two sealed deck tournaments, one with 8 people and one with 6. One was won by a Jack Bauer deck and one was won by a David Palmer deck.

The constructed tournament had 20 people and a really nice guy from Iowa won the iPod Nano. I really do apologize but I can't remember his name or what deck he was playing.

I played my first three Gunslinging games and won them all. Two of them were pretty big wins for me but one guy took me to the limit. His Terrorists were giving my Infiltrators fits. He was up 12-0 and 19-4 but I was able to come back and win 24-16.

I will have a better update tomorrow.

24 TCG Tournaments

The first two sealed deck tournaments happened today and a great time was had by all. We had 12 players for the first event and six for the second event. Both are great totals for a game that doesn't actually release until Wednesday and held at a comic book show.

First Tournament
1 - Jack Bauer - Agent Deck
2 - Nina Myers - Infiltrator Deck

Second Tournament
1 - Nina Myers - Infiltrator Deck
2 - Charles Logan - Conspirator Deck

The Nina Myers decks were both played by the same player, a long time supporter of TCGs I've worked on, Doug. We have three tournaments tomorrow so we'll see how things continue.

Wizard World Chicago, Day One Pictures

Here are some more pictures from Wizard World Chicago.

24 TCG finally on sale!














And boy is it moving.














Demos














And more demos.

Wizard World Chicago, Day One

Just a quick update. The first pack of 24 TCG ever sold!













Every second does count.














The first ever 24 TCG tournament.














With 12 players!

Wizard World Chicago, Day Zero

I don't really have anything to update for Wizard World Day Zero other than Preview Night was rather bland. Most people for Preview Night are looking for a specific thing and we didn't have any hard to get exclusives so we just gave demos.

The pictures is to show you how hard our volunteers work for us. Chaz at San Diego Comic-Con busted his butt so much that he was sleeping at the booth before it opened. Chaz loved it so much he decided to come back for some more at Wizard World Chicago. I should have more pictures tomorrow.

On the road, Day One

Not since Harold and Kumar (who turns out was a terrorist and gets his own 24 TCG card) went to White Castle has there been an adventure to the level of Jdub and TMac's Midwest Adventure. We left today and will be here in the Midwest for the next 12 days. Three different hotels, two states, tons of miles and thousands of happy convention goers. It should be a great time!

Today was pretty simple, flying to Chicago (via Washington, DC, wtf) and getting the booth set up. Of course the flight was late from DC to Chicago and almost none of our stuff was at the booth so today was pretty wasted. Welcome to life on the road and working on conventions. Stuff like this happens all the time. Tomorrow should hopefully be better, well it better be since the show opens at 4pm.

But at least today wasn't a total loss. What kind of job can you get where you get to see the Washington Monument, Capitol Building, and the Sears Tower in the same day.

Last Spoiler Day

This will be the last Spoiler Day before the release of the Day Zero Tactical Packs next Wednesday. Day Zero is our preview set don't worry, spoilers for First Edition, our big release will start soon. I know, I get sad as well at the end of spoiler season but it also means you get physical product in your hands. Man I love cracking packs.

Now onto the spoiler itself. There isn't much to say really. The M-4 Carbine is a staple in both the 24 show and real world special forces use so it should be for the 24 TCG as well. This card is a beast, adding Lethal to anyone who you feel needs it. Those of you who have done some work with the demo decks know how strong Lethal can be and now anyone can be Lethal.

We're leaving for Wizard World Chicago (mmm...promo cards) tomorrow and then Gen Con Indy after that so make sure to check this blog for all of the cool updates of demos, tournaments, prizes, and of course celebrity sightings ( mmm...Tricia Helfer). If you can make it either show I'm sure you'll have a blast.

I will try to post my Gunslinging decks before Gen Con to give you guys a heads up and give you a better chance to hopefully win a few copies of the elusive Gunslinging promo card. Now I must get back to work and prepare for a nice first class flight tomorrow, flying first class is the only way to travel. Well before I leave here is another spoiler for all of your FMA TCG or LOTR TCG fans.

The penultimate Spoiler Day!

For the second to last Spoiler Day I decided I should show off one of my favorite cards. This guy is actually in First Edition but he is one of the rare winner promos and will be given out starting next weekend at Wizard World Chicago. I know the street date for 24 TCG Tactical Packs is August 15 but we'll have limited quantities at Wizard World Chicago starting August 9.

Back to this brutal, game changer. Well there isn't much to say about him, he just kills characters. He won't score you many points but combined with Nina Myers, Mandy, and Shot In The Back you can start knocking off your opponents characters.

I'm still trying to upload some more pictures of San Diego Comic-Con but I'm having a hard time coming up with PG or even PG-13 rated pictures. I guess the naughty nurse and the 50 Resident Evil models in skimpy red dresses impaired my picture taking abilities. Actually I keep leaving my camera at home, I should remember it before too long.

The one thing I am sorry about is missing the camera at key celebrity times. I was giving a demo when Jessica Alba, yes the Jessica Alba (I'll be in my bunk) came by the booth. Other great celebrity sightings by Press Pass at SDCC '07 included Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Steve Carrell, Summer Glau, the entire case of Kyle XY, the entire cast the new Terminator TV show, the entire cast of Bionic Woman, Jamie Bamber, Louis Lombardi, Andre 3000, I'm sure there are others, man I love Comic-Con!

While Jason isn't looking I'll sneak another spoiler. This is actually the first card I wrote for 24 TCG, the Analysts were the deck I wrote first. I knew I wanted them to be able to score points outside of missions and use equipment so why not take advantage of both.

San Diego Comic-Con Day Four

We're done! San Diego Comic-Con is done. Once I get home I'll be able to stop fighting this silly internet connection and be able to post some pictures. Hundreds of demos, thousands of fliers given out, and about two dozen celebrity spotting later and Press Pass ends San Diego Comic-Con. What a great show. Check back starting Tuesday for pictures and of course this week's spoiler. We're less than two weeks away from Wizard World Chicago and actual product. Man I love con season!

Backstabbing

Since I can't get the SDCC pictures uploaded I will give you a spoiler instead. This another one of the alternate image foil cards used for prize support. This will be one of the participation cards. The regular version of this card is in the Infiltrator Tactical Pack but it is not foiled.

San Diego Comic-Con Day Three

Man, what a day. A day that started at 5:30am is now coming to a close at a little before 10pm. I do love San Diego Comic-Con and would never want to miss it but man does it wear you down. I have some pictures for you to view, I will have a ton more of the booth, demos, spoilers, and just SDCC in general as the week goes on. At least until Wizard World Chicago starts in two weeks and I'll have pictures of that show. I would post the pictures now but blogger is giving me a really hard time. Hopefully I can get some uploaded tomorrow.

San Diego Comic-Con Day Two

Today was a incredibly tiring day and tomorrow will be about 13 hours so I'm going to just upload one picture and fight with blogger later. I've got some fun pictures of the show but this is a picture of the 24 panel where Ed Bolme and found out some great behind the scenes information on the past 24 seasons. Oh yeah, some insight into 24 Day 7. Maybe if we're asked nicely we can share some.

Check back later, probably all week once I get back into the office, for more San Diego Comic-Con pictures.

San Diego Comic-Con Day One

San Diego Comic-Con Day Zero

Preview Night at San Diego Comic-Con is always fun. About 50,000 people rush the convention hall looking for their favorite creator to sign something, the latest movie information, or the hottest con exclusive. Justin Beal and Jason Winter were at the Press Pass booth ready to answer questions and give demos.



And give lots of demos we did. I also got to sneak away from the booth a little bit and be a fanboy. The two images of the 24 toys from McFarland Toys look great. And of course I had to visit the Heroes booth, actual props, drool.

Well SDCC Day One starts very soon, I should have more pictures tonight or early tomorrow.

San Diego Comic-Con Day Minus One

Jason and I arrived at San Diego after two planes, five hours in the air, three hours in Phoenix, a crying baby, and all four time zones. Of course our luggage decided that three hours to find the plane from Charlotte to the plane going to San Diego didn't make it to San Diego. Hopefully it will show up eventually. Either way I've some pictures.

Everyone loves San Diego Comic-Con. You really shouldn't be reading this blog, you should be at San Diego Comic-Con.















The Lego Chewbacca is trying to rip Jason's arms off.














Man I love me some Indiana Jones.














Stuff we always bring to conventions, spoilers!

Mandy

The first Elite card. Why do I get to post the first Elite card for 24 TCG? Well it is 9:00pm and I'm still working, I just left the office an hour or so ago. Why am I working so late, well we have San Diego Comic-Con tomorrow, Wizard World Chicago in two weeks, and Gen Con Indy the week after that. Lots of stuff to do in so little time. I figure I can pass my exhaustion onto a little spoiler for you guys. Well enough about why I'm showing you the card, let's talk a little about the card itself.

Mandy is guilty of being a top-down designed card. I try very hard not to write top-down but sometimes it is so much fun. I knew I wanted Mandy to be in the preview set, she is one of my favorite characters in 24 and I wanted her to have a pretty strong and unique ability. The Sexy Assassin is in three seasons, kills numerous people, on and off screen, almost does in two major characters, and shows she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. As a 24 viewer you're never sure if she is alive or dead, when she will come back. Well as a 24 TCG player you can be sure she isn't really dead and will always come back. Her ability is very strong and mixed with the fixed Nina Myers can allow Nina to really start eliminating the competition. There are a few other cards that combo pretty well with her but we don't want to spoil them just yet.

Hopefully you'll find Mandy in one your Tactical Packs on August 15, yes that is right. 24 TCG releases three weeks from Wednesday at game stores everywhere. Make sure to ask your local game store to carry 24 TCG.

I'm off to San Diego Comic-Con tomorrow, I brought a few spoilers with me so when I get a chance to update the show I'll make sure to give some more spoilers, make sure to check back all week.

Tournament Prizes

In the next few weeks we're going to talk a lot about Wizard World Chicago and Gen Con Indy and how great the prizes will be there and those prizes will be great. Let's not forget about the local tournament prizes.

Local tournaments for 24 TCG are free to registered retailers and Tournament Organizers. Each TO or retailer may run one local tournament per week and the prize support will be mailed to the TO or retailer.

The prize support is made up of three cards, one winner card and two participation cards. One of the participation cards goes to the runner-up of the tournament, the other one goes to TO's choice, usually random or something similar.

The winner card will be randomly selected from a pool of six alternate image foil rare cards. The participation cards will be randomly selected from a pool of six alternate image common or uncommon cards. The potential pool of 12 cards (6 rare, 6 common/uncommon) will change every three to six months depending on demand. This will be the only way you can foil versions of these cards.

There will be more details soon on how youc an sign up and run local tournaments. Press Pass is teaming up with Sony Online to create the online tournament site and it should be up and running in August.

As to the picture in this article, he is one of the first four tournament prizes to be given out starting at Wizard World Chicago and into Gen Con Indy. I'll make sure to spoil the other three at a later time. The other eight won't be available until September.

See you at Gen Con or Wizard World Chicago

Gen Con Event Schedule

The star of Gen Con 2008 is less than a month and that means it is time to talk 24 TCG tournaments. Talking tournaments also means talking prizes and let's just say for 24 TCGs debut we have some great prizes.

24 TCG at Gen Con including prizes. All tournaments will include extra prizes such as addition Tactical Packs, Elites, exclusive foils, and additional DVD box sets.

All price could change depending on Gen Con pricing structure. Please check with Press Pass at Gen Con if you have any questions.

Thursday 8/16

1:00pm
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$15.00 Entry
24 DVD box set to the winner.

6:00pm
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$18.00 Entry
iPod Nano to the winner.
24 DVD box set to the runner-up.

7:00pm
Constructed Tournament
$3.00 Entry
24 DVD box set to the winner.

Friday 8/17

11:00am
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$15.00 Entry
24 DVD box set to the winner.

2:00pm
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$18.00 Entry
iPod Nano to the winner.
24 DVD box set to the runner-up.

7:00pm
Agent Challenge (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$12.00 Entry
Each player who goes undefeated or defeats a Press Pass employee gets at least a share of box of Tactical Packs.

Saturday 8/18

11:00am
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$15.00 Entry
24 DVD box set to the winner.

2:00pm
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$15.00 Entry
24 DVD box set to the winner.

8:00pm
24 TCG Gen Con Championship
Constructed Tournament
$9.00 Entry
$500 cash to the winner.
iPod Nano to the runner-up.

Sunday 8/19

11:00am
Tactical Draft (Each Player gets 3 Tactical Packs to build a deck)
$18.00 Entry
iPod Nano to the winner.
24 DVD box set to the runner-up.

1:00pm
Constructed
$3.00 Entry
24 DVD box set to the winner.

24 Hours

It is Agenda Week with the 24TCG spoilers and I wanted to show off our only Agenda promo, at least to start. I will have more information on promo cards as we get closer to launch but for now let's spend time on 24 Hours.

This is a promo card to be given out starting at Gen Con Indy in August. We will continue to give it out at conventions and events Press Pass attends where we have at least 24 hours of events scheduled. The way to earn this promo is to play in at least 24 hours worth of events during the convention or special event we attend. It is as simple as that.

For those that can't attend our bigger events and the large conventions we will have a 24 Hour month in 2008 for stores to offer the same prize. For 24 TCG most of the promos will be non-exclusive gameplay. The only exclusive gameplay promos will be ones given out in mass, like cards inserted into a DVD set or the participation card for the world-wide Spec Ops Pre-Release in January. Almost every other promo will be either alternate image, AI foil, or AI preview. That means that people who can't participate in the events can still get the gameplay on each card if not the foil or alternate image. 24 Hours is an AI preview, 24 Hours will be printed in an upcoming set with a different image but you can get yours first starting at Gen Con Indy in August.

See you at Gen Con!

David Palmer, Man of Integrity

Today is Wednesday which is typically spoiler day and today starts the first spoilers for 24 TCG.

I'm lucky, I get to spoil David Palmer, one of my favorite characters in 24. David Palmer is also one of the best cards in 24 TCG. He is key to any Statesman or President based deck you want to make. He has a skill of 3 and Expert so when he gets going he can easily score you 4 points a turn. His reusable ability (provided you have enough time) to lower opponents War values will make sure he wins most missions he is involved in. He has Politics so he can use key cards like 25th Amendment and Veto. Other characters like Mike Novick and Lynne Kresge will also help President Palmer to victory.

This David Palmer is only available in the Statesman pack of the Tactical Packs released in August. He will have a regular version and a foil version in each Statesman deck. Make sure to check other sites because the main character in all six Tactical Packs are being spoiled today, some might be harder to find than others.

Mandy

Here is my first spoiler, I love spoilers. Make sure you check out all the other spoilers, David Palmer, Jack Bauer, and Nina Myers.

Mandy, Sexy Assassin
Faction - Insurgent
Specialty - Infiltrator
Cost - 5 Time
Skill - 3 (Intel)
Health - 2
War - +1
Gametext
Lethal
Operative
React 0: Before Mandy is killed, add her to your hand.
"I'm gonna disappear for awhile. Lie low."

Adventures In Playtesting

By Hayden-William Courtland

Countless hours are devoted to fine-tuning the choice of cards and the powers/abilities on the cards that get printed in each expansion of a trading card game. I’ve contributed to this process as a playtester for several games and numerous expansions and it has always been a treat. However, nothing compares to working with new cards for a brand new game. With no other cards previously in print and no preconceived notions of how gameplay and deckbuilding should be, playtesting for a new game is a blast.

When I jumped into testing for the 24 TCG I was immediately drawn in by all the new cards. There were so many to choose from, that it was hard to decide where to begin. I settled on an Agent deck since I could easily focus my deck around everyone’s favorite modern-day hero, Jack Bauer. Thirty minutes later I had assembled a pile of cards to build my deck. I was happy that there was a restriction of two copies of any one card per deck, because it meant I would be forced to have more different cards in my deck. However, when I started building I realized that I had collected far too many cards for my deck. You’re only allowed to play with 24!

I had to cut cards from the first run and made a deck that aimed to make Jack really beefy. My opponent took a different approach with a deck that had many smaller Terrorists. These characters played early and in numbers, often without weapons at all; them simply ran on over and slapped me around. As such the attacking was strong from the get-go, well before Jack even saw the table. I sat there thumbing through my hand, scratching my head, and then realized that when you reach the point where players have 5 time in their game, their game will be more than half-finished. So, the balance of card costs in my first deck build wasn’t optimal – the game can be fast. As a fan of the TV show I should have expected that!

So I rebuilt and rebuilt and eventually things settled in. Anyone who watches the 24 series knows that Jack can get big and beefy carrying items and firepower. Well, he certainly can in the game as well. I just had to be selective in the number of items and weapons I placed in my deck. In addition, I added a few cards to help get Jack out quickly and to buy me some time in case he’s running late. In the end it worked and my fellow testers had similar success with nearly every deck archetype they championed. There are lots of great cards to look forward to in the 24 TCG. But don’t take my word for it! Try it out – there’s nothing quite as rewarding as figuring out how a new game is played and feeling like it is your own.

Only Three Months to Go!

We're right about three months from the release of 24 TCG with the Day Zero Tactical Packs. The Tactical Packs will be followed by the full booster release First Edition in September.

With the game only three months from being released we're going to start posting regular articles on this blog leading up to the release of the TCG. The official 24 TCG site will be up and running any day now but this blog will allow to show off a more behind the scenes look into to designing everyone's favorite game about saving the world from terrorists.

Remember, events occur in real time.

A few early game results

David and Sherry Palmer easily defeating Nina Myers and her Femme Fatales.

Jack Bauer, with a lot of help from Kim, defeated Charles Logan and his minions.

Yet another Jack Bauer vs. Jack Bauer match up, I think Jack won that one.

Jack Bauer barely held off the Palmer onslaught.

To finish the best of the early games today a nail bitter between two different Palmer decks.

Day Three Begins

Playtesting started again about 40 minutes ago, after a nice breakfast of donuts and well more donuts. The extra sugar should help get things going. Today is shorter day than Friday and Saturday but we'll still get in plenty of games. One of everyone's favorite cards so far is the senator version of David Palmer. Man he is really good. Well off to test.

Day Two is Done

Well Day Two is finally done. Some 14 hours or so of testing, it is time to call it a day. Let me just say this game is turning out to be a blast.

Keep on keepin' on

12 hours later and we're still going. From Jack Bauer to Nina Myers to Chase Edmunds to Victor Drazen we've seen it all today. The fast-paced game engine has held up just like we thought it would. Players are having a very good time playing their favorite characters from 24. The unique timing and deck size are creating a great TCG experience. We'll have some more updates and fun playtest weekend stories over the next few weeks. Don't worry we're not done with updates this weekend though.

Day Two is well underway

We're not quite as hardcore as Jack Bauer, instead of 24 hour days we went from 8am till 8:30pm yesterday. The plan today is from 9am till about 11pm or 12am. We started a little late, around 9:30 or so. With an even dozen of us we should get in around 400 or so games today, not bad.

My plan today, at least for the first part of the day, is to play Nina Myers and her Infiltrators. These are the bad guys who represent the spies, the ones who sneak around and try to back stab everyone including CTU. We'll see how they go.

Jack Bauer vs. Jack Bauer

In my first playtest game of the weekend it was a Jack centric deck vs. a Jack centric deck. In a series of three turns Jack killed Jack five times between me and the other player. What good times.

Playtesting

This weekend (May 4 - 6) is our first major playtesting session for 24 TCG. We've been working on the game since November 2006 and now it is time to grind out and test the cards. It should be fun, about 16 or so of us will be here all weekend and we'll be testing over 450 cards! I'm going to make sure to post some funny stories and insight from the weekend. Check back for as many updates as we can post.

Welcome!

Welcome to the 24 TCG blog. We'll use this blog as a more casual place to update information about 24 TCG.